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KANSAS AFFAIRS. 



SPEECH 



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HON. HENKY WILSON, 



OF MASSACHUSETTS, 



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DELIVERED 



IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, JULY 9, ia5G. 




WASHINGTON: 
PRINTED AT THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE OFFICE. 

1856. 



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KANSAS AFFAIRS. 



The Sciiate baying under consideration the report in favor 
of printing twenty thousand extra copies of the bill to 
enable the people of the Territory of Kansas to form a 
constitution, and against the motion to print the same 
number of the amendments offered to the bill, and the 
yeas and nays upon them — 

Mr. WILSON said: 

Mr. President: I shall vote most cheerfully to 
gratify Senators on the other side of the Chamber, 
in circulating before the country this electioneer- 
ing document. I am willing to vote for printing 
one hundred thousand copies of this bill, for Sen- 
ators on the other side of the Chamber to scatter 
over the country; and if those Senators ask it at 
my hands they shall have it. They have put it, 
however, on the ground that it is necessary to 
explain their position; in other words, that it is 
aji electioneering document, to be used before the 
people during the coming presidential election. 

Yes, sir, 1 shall vote to send your bill broad- 
cast over the land. It will not deceive the people. 
They know the condition of affairs in Kansas. 
They have watched your action — they are read- 
ing the report of the committee of the House of 
Representatives — they believe that, if this bill is 
passed, it will crown the violent efforts made in 
that Territory, and bring Kansas into the Union 
as a slaveholding State. If Senators on the other 
side think they can make anything out of the 
circulation of this bill, all I have to say to them 
is, I will aid them with all my heart, for lliey 
need all the aid they themselves, or their friends, 
or their enemies, can give them, to place them 
before the country, on this Kansas question, in 
a position that shall secure to them, not the con- 
fidence of the people, for that is gone forever, 
but the charity of an outraged public sentiment. 

Mr. President, is it the intention of honor- 
able Senators to take the vote to-day? [" Yes."] 
Then, sir, it is my intention to throw myself 
upon the indulgence of the Senate, even at this 
late hour; for I cannot permit the question to 
pass from the Senate without replying to some 
of the remarks which have fallen from you, sir, 



[Mr. BiGLER, in the chair,] from the Senator 
from Illinois, [Mr. Douglas,] and from the Sen- 
ator from Georgia, [Mr. Toombs,] who has just 
taken his seat. The intentions, objects, and pur- 
poses of this darling scheme to close the contest in 
Kansas by crowning the conquests of the lawless 
conquerors of that Territory, have been promptly 
laid open to the gaze of the public eye. Stung 
to the quick by this prompt exposure of this gi- 
gantic fraud upon the country, you, sir, and the 
Senators from Illinois and Georgia, have indulged 
in a line of remark towards the minority here, 
who have baffled your designs by exposing your 
objects, that I do not choose to let pass unnoticed. 
I regret that you, sir, at this moment occupy 
the chair, as I had intended to speak with some 
degree of plainness of the wanton charge made 
by you against me, of misrepresenting the pro- 
visions of your bill. There is not the shadow 
of truth upon which to base the charge you have 
made. When and how have I misrepresented 
the bill .'' What provision of the bill have I mis- 
represented.' Point it out, sir; name it, sir. You 
cannot do it. None of your associates can do 
it, and you and they know that we have not 
misrepresented a single provision of your pet 
scheme. Here andnow,! defy you to point me to 
a single provision of your bill that I have in any 
way whatever misrepresented or misstated. At 
no time, on no occasion, have I ever misrepre- 
sented your measure, in any respect whatever; and 
the debates will fully sustain this declaration. 

The terms of the bill are plain and clear, and 
will be comprehended readily by the Senate and 
the country. There it is, plain to the comprehen- 
sion of any intelligent man in or out of the Senate. 
What I have said, and what I believe religiously, 
ia, that the adoption of this bill by this Congress 
will close the question, and make Kansas a slave 
State of this Union; that it will consummate the 
lawless violence, commencing on the 30th of 
March, 1855, and now raging almost unchecked 
in that Territory. 

The provisions of your measure we have not 
misrepresented ; the present condition of Kansas 



we have not misstated. The intentions of the 
authors of this darlingscheme of pacification are to 
be ascertained by an examination of the terms of 
the measure, and the circumstances and condi- 
tion of the Territory. If, in the present condition 
of the Territory, the passage of the measure will 
make Kansas a slaveholding State, you who 
support the scheme will be held, in the Senate 
and before the country, responsible for its legiti- 
mate results. Sir, the Senators from Pennsylva- 
nia and Illinois may vehemently deny the charge; 
you may pronounce it unfounded, as you have 
done; but the people will hold your intentions to 
be to accomplish what your measure is calculated 
to accomplish — the conversion of Kansas into a 
slaveholding Commonwealth. You of the ma- 
jority here may protest, you may deny, you may 
denounce, but the practical judgment of the coun- 
try pronouncestheintentionsof the authors of the 
bill to be to make Kansas a slaveholding State. 
The honorable Senator from Illinois, who has 
led in the Senate, and stands before the country 
as the recognized leader in the movement tor the 
repeal of the Missouri prohibition, and for the 
organization of the Territory, has been pleased 
to charge upon us of the minority, and upon our 
speeches here, the scenes of lawless violence which 
have transpired in the Territory. Sir, he has no 
right to draw even an inference from any word 
that ever dropped from my lips, here or elsewhere, 
to justify a charge so entirely groundless. I have 
never heard any Senator on this floor utter a sin- 
gle sentiment calculated to excite violence in that 
Territory by the free-State men. What have 
the free-State men to gain by lawclss violence ? 
Nothing. Peace, law, and order, are necessary 
to proleet them in the exercise of their rights — to 
protect them in the free enjoyment of those opin- 
ions which we believe are to make Kansas a free 
State. The charge has no foundation: no man 
here believes it; no man in the country believes 
it; it is based on no act of ours, in or out of the 
Senate; and the Senator from Illinois knows the 
charge to be as groundless as it is unjust. From 
the time that the honorable Senator introduced 
the proposition to repeal the Missouri conijiro- 
mise,on the 7th of January, 1854, to this period, 
I have paid some little attention to the affairs of 
Kansas, and I profess to know something of them. 
In spite of the declarations made to-day, and in 
spite of the language used early in the debate by 
the honorable gentleman from Louisiana, [Mr. 
Benjamin,] in regard to " mendacious tales" on 
this floor concerning Kansas, I have never uttered 
a word here on the subject that any Senator dared 
to contradict. I will take that word back — they 
have contradicted it; but no Senator ever conde- 
scended to disprove what I have said, and none 
ever will. 

Sir, what I have uttered in regard to affairs in 
Kansas T knew to be true and accurate. I have 
friends in Kansas; there are intelligent and truth- 
ful men there with whom I am in communication; 
I know something of their history and their strug- 
gles; and although the country is appalled at the 
mass of evidence presented by the House com- 
mittee, I say the report of that committee doe^ 
not begin to come up to the actual truth. There 
is a record of lawless violence; there is a record 
of outrages vipon property, liberty, and life; but 
there is no record of the agonies which the peo- 



ple have endured by day and by night. Peace- 
able men who never held a weapon in their hands 
in all their lives; Christian men v/ho carry their 
Bibles and thi'ir prayer-books instead of knivea 
and revolvers wherever they go, have been hunted 
down. They have suffered agonies untold. The 
record of their agonies will never be read by 
mortal eye; the world will never fully comprehend 
the atrocities committed in that Territory, or the 
sufferings endured by that people. That day 
which shall reveal all things may reveal the un- 
told miseries of that people, but the world will 
never know how much of suffering has been en- 
dured in that ill-fated Territory. I will read an 
extract from a letter, recently received from a 
friend in that Territory, a man of peaceful life, 
of high intellectual and moral culture. He writes: 

"The wliole truth has not been, and never can be told. 
Even your congressional committee's report, astounding as 
it may be, will not lift the vail from very many scenes of 
\ bloodshed, violence, plunder, and oppression. You get 
the main features, and many of the details, enough to 
damn any people on the face of the earth ; and were such 
outrages committed on American citizens by a band of 
cannibals in the Pacific ocean, or Indians on the Rocky 
Mountains, a force sufficient to annihilate them would 
be started within twenty-four hours. It is true, you realize 
that we are deprived of our rights, subject to cruel and 
oppressive laws, our citizens occasionally robbed and mur- 
dered; but of the thousand petty .annoyances, and more 
serious agjresfions on our persons and property, of which 
we have been victims during this reign of terror, you prob- 
ably have no idea. All business has been paralyzed, so 
that many men, who depend on their daily earnings to sup- 
port their families, are destitute, and actually sufTer from 
want of suitable food. Many are driven about and hunted 
down like wild beasts. Our men are kept from their farm 
work, and prevented from raising a crop this year, our 
enemies sweari}ig we shall raise nothing to live on. Bands 
of ruffians have been prowling about in every direction, 
and no single man's life or projjerty was safe, night or day. 
When I go from home, or send a team and any of the 
boys, I have felt it was an even chance, whether we ever 
returned; and at niglit I get my cattle around my house, 
my rifle at hand, I lie down feeling that I may be aroused 
by the assassin, or robber, before morning. It is this con- 
stant feeling of insecurity that is the essence of our griev- 
ances. Almost daily men are stopped, robbed of their 
money, loading, and teams, sometimes murdered, and some- 
times a rope piit around their necks and choked, or drawn 
up to the limb of a tree, and otherwise abused, and thea 
sufTered to escape from the Territory." 

The Senator from Illinois to -day has had another 
fling at the emigrant aid society. That society 
came here some time ago with a memorial, stating 
facts vvhicii have never been disproved; and yet, 
honorable Senators rise and assail this society, 
and urge its existence and its acts as an apology, 
for the outrages which have occurred in Kansas. 
Sir, no man ever went to Kansas by the aid of 
that society, that has committed an unlawful act 
in that Territory which you have ever proved. 
Here, to-day, before the Senate and the country, 
I ask you to find — I defy you to find — a man who 
ever entered the Territory under the auspices of 
the emigrant aid society, that has committed an 
act of murder, robbery, plunder, or any unlawful 
act. Notwithstanding what the Senator from 
Georgia states of them, I say here that the emi- 
grants from the East, settled at Lawrence, settled 
at Ossawatamie, and at other points in that Ter- 
ritory, in point of intelligence and personal char- 
acter will bear a comparison not unfavorable with 
the population of any section of this Union. They 
are a law-abiding and law-loving — aliberty-loving 
and order- loving people — men who call no man 
master, and wish to call no man a slave. 



in the interests of the Administration and its 
master — the slave power. The appeals and pro- 
tests of the wronged and outraged people of 
Kansas were unheeded by your Administration; 
you had no ear to listen to the story of their 
wrongs; you had no voice to rebuke their op- 
pressors; you had no arm to protect them, or 
to redress their great wrongs. Sir, when that 
damning deed of "the 30th olf March, 1855, was j 
performed — when that people were overborne, \ 
robbed of their rights — where were the Senators 
from Illinois, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Connec- 1 
tJcut, and Ohio? You were silent — dumb. Where j 
was your President and his constitutional advis- j 
ers? The President was silent — dumb! Where j 
slept the thunders of the Democracy? The De- j 
niocracy, obedient to the nod of the slave power, | 
put its hand upon its lip, and laid its forehead low 
in the dust, at the feet of that power that had sent 
four thousand nine hundred armed ruffians to the 
conquest of Kansas. 

This great crime against popular rights — this 
entire abrogation of the doctrine of " squatter 
sovereignty," found no voice of condemnation 
among the retainers of the Administration in 
the ranks of the Democracy. Apologists were 
found ready to excuse the crime, defend the crim- 
inals, and slander and rebuke an outraged people. 
The slave power, with unabashed brow, has con- 
tinued to deny the fact of the armed invasion of 
the 30th of March, 1855, but that voice of denial 

frows faint before the damning record brought 
ack from that Territory by the committee of the 
House. 

The Legislature border ruffianism had imposed 
upon conquered Kansas, with revolvers, bowie- 
knives, and cannon, came together at the appointed 
time and place. Without even the formalities of 
an examination , the members holding the Govern- 
or's certificates, were hustled out, and the per- 
sons to whom the Governor had refused certifi- 1 
cates were hurried into their places, and the 
work of border ruffianism was secured in all its 
completeness. This Assembly, imposed on Kan- 
sas by the lawless conquest of Missouri invaders, 
having perfected its organization, imposed upon 
the free people of the conquered Territory the 
laws of their conquerors — the laws of Missouri. 
Your Governor, sent out by the Administration, 
undertook to arrest the career of this Legislature 
imposed upon his people by armed hordes of 
border bandits, but he received no aid at the 
hands of the Administration. At the critical 
moment, when his arm was raised to shield the 
people committed to his protection, he was smit- 
ten down, to the groat relief of the Legislature, 
and to the gratification of the exultant slave 
power. Your acting Governor, Woodson, has- 
tened to give his sanction to the Draconian code, 
formed for the government of the people of Kan- 
sas by these instruments of the slave power, un- 
der the direction of Atchison and Stringfellow. 
The invasion, conquest, and subjugation of Kan- 
sas was complete. Laws were imposed upon 
the people that robbed them of their rights, and 
degraded them into a condition of abject humili- 
ation. Freedom of speech and freedom of the 
press were cloven down. Trial by jury was made 
a mockery. Test oaths, against which reason 
and humanity revolt, were imposed upon men 
who were to be left "perfectly free" to settle 



their own domestic affairs. The people of Kan- 
sas were bound hand and foot — reduced to the 
pitiable condition of conquered menials of the 
slave power. 

In this gloomy hour, did your Administration 
interpose to arrest the conquerors? Did Dem- 
ocratic Senators raise their protesting voices 
against these crowning acts of lawless power? 
Did Democratic presses utter the language of pub- 
lic indignation and rebuke? Did your official 
menials in the Territory endeavor to moderate the 
action of the instruments of Missouri invaders ? 
No, sir, no! Your Democratic Executive was 
dumb, passive, motionless ; your Democratic 
statesmen uttered no protest against the impend- 
ing wrongs; your Democratic presses uttered no 
words of rebuke; and your Government officials 
went over to the camp of the conquerors, struck 
hands with Atchison, Stringfellow, Jones, and 
the other chiefs of border ruffianism. 

Invaded by armed hosts, overborne by over- 
whelming numbers, conquered, but not disheart- 
ened, the freemen of Kansas, conscious of their 
rights and their powers, appealed from the legisla- 
tion of their conquerors to the judgment of the peo- 
ple of the Territory. Loyal to the Constitution — 
to the Union — to the Federal Government — plant- 
ing themselves upon the organic law of the Terri- 
tory, they resolved to cast aside the inhuman, un- 
christian, and devilish enactments of their Mis- 
souri conquerors, to take the sense of the people 
upon the organization of a State government for 
the security of their property, their liberty, and 
their lives. The slave power scented treason in the 
resolution of the people; it denounced the popu- 
lar movement. The Administration, which had 
no. voice to rebuke the deeds of lawless invasion — 
no arm to arrest the oppressive acts of usurped 
power, recovered its lost voice. Democratic pol- 
iticians and Democratic presses blurted their 
words of condemnation into the unwilling ear of 
the people, whose sympathies were with the 
struggling freemen of the Territory. Men, who 
had no words of rebuke for the lawless hordes 
that trampled down the rights of the people of 
Kansas, had bitter reproaches to heap upon the 
devoted heads of a people who were endeavoring 
to recover their lost rights and powers. Yes, 
sir, we have witnessed on this floor, in the other 
House, and in the executive chair, the " little ill- 
timed scruples— zeal for adhering to ordinary 
forms," to use the language of James Madison — 
of " those who wished to indulge, under these 
masks, their secret enmity to the substance con- 
tended for." The " substance contended for" by 
the people of Kansas was the establishment of a 
government by the people for the people. They 
followed the examples set them by the people of 
other Territories— examples which had received^ 
the sanction of Congress and of the people— of 
the chiefs and leaders of the Democracy. The 
slave power, conscious of its weakness in the 
Territory, demanded the execution of its laws, 
and the defeat of the popular movements for a 
State government, and the demands of that power 
have been complied with by the Administration 
and its supporters in and out of Congress. 

In spite, however, of the threats of the slave 
pow^r- in spite of your rebukes— your Adminis- 
tration denunciation of " treason," the people of 
Kansas assembled— appointed a day for the dec- 



8 



tion of delegates to a constitutional convention — 
elected their delegates — framed a constitution, 
adopted it in the face of threatened violence, and 
that constitution you have rejected, although it 
received the sanction of llie representatives of the 
people. Sir, for framing this constitution — this 
free constitution — for organizing under it a State 
Government and choosing Senators to urge its 
adoption here, tlie ]ieople of Kansas have been 
denounced as " traitors" by the Senator from 
Illinois and those who follow his lead in and out 
of the Senate. This Chamber has rung with your 
words of rebuke, denunciation, and reproof of the 
people of Kansas, whose only crime is devfttion 
to freedom — resistance to the monstrous tyranny 
of usurped power. 1 charge upon the Adminis- 
tration the crime of abandoning the people of 
Kansas to the merciless rule of their conquerors — 
ay, sir, I go further, and 1 charge upon the Ad- 
ministration and upon its supporters here the 
crime of aiding and abetting tiieir conquerors in 
their unhallowed deeds. 

Mr. President, the Administration and its 
supporters — the Senators from Illinois, Pennsyl- 
vania, and Georgia — snatched Kansas from the 
exclusive possession of the free laboring men of 
the Republic — North and South — and flung it 
open to the foot-prints of the slave and his master; 
you deluded the people with the idea of popu- 
lar sovereignty; you have seen that sovereignty 
cloven down by invading hordes of armed men; 
you have seen the people robbed of their rights 
and oppressed; you have seen them struggle to 
I'ecover their lost rights, and in all their wrongs 
and struggles you have basely abandoned them — 
ay, you have joined their oppressors and aided 
them in the enforcement of their usurped powers 
and unhallowed decrees. Sir, I hold the Adminis- 
tration — I hold the majority here — I hold the 
Democratic party up to the stern verdict of the 
civilized world for this abandonment of the peo- 
])le of Kansas — tliis collusion with their oppress- 
ors. 

The people of Kansas, Mr. President, have not 
only been defrauded of their legal and political 
rights — oppressed by laws imposed upon them 
by foreign force — and denied all redress, but they 
liave been invaded, hunted down by armed bands 
of thieving marauders, their dwellings burned, 
their property stolen, and many of their number 
treated with personal violence, and some of them 
brutally murdered. Dwellings have been bat- 
tered with cannon, houses have been fired, presses 
destroyed, oxen, horses, and other property, sto- 
len, and men foully murdered, and the Adminis- 
tration and its officials in the Territory have no 
time to spare from the infamous work of subdu- 
ing the friends of free Kansas to the ari'est and 
punishment of the men who have illumined the 
midnight skies with the lurid light of sacked and 
burning dwellings of the people — men who have 
inaugurated the era of robbery, violence, and 
murder. 

In the closing days of November, just before 
the meeting of the present Congress, Dow was 
.shot do wn in the highway — murdered in cold blood 
by Coleman, without cause, and without warning. 
Was Coleman promptly arrested for this cold- 
blooded murder by yonr official authorities ? Did 
Governor Shannon exert himself to bring to jus- 
tice the murderer.' Coleman was not brought to 



trial. Branson, in whose familyDoXv lived, under 
the excitement of the moment, dropped some rash' 
and hasty expressions. Branson was arrested — 
Coleman, the cold-blooded murderer, was allowed 
togo with impunity wherever he chose. The party 
that took Branson from his home — from his bed 
— was met several miles from Lawrence by sev- 
eral of his friends and neighbors, and invited to 
leave his new acquaintances, and join his old 
friends, and he accepted the invitation. Then it 
was that your Governor Shannon — a man utterly 
1 unfit, as you all know, to be the Governor of that 
Teri'itory — for he could not govern so small a spe- 
cimen of humanity as himself — issued his hasty 
proclamation — called out the militia, and tele- 
graphed your President for authority to call out 
Colonel Sumner's dragoons. Then it was that 
fifteen hundred men from western Missouri in- 
vaded the Territory, marched to the banks of the 
Wakarusa, with threats to wipe out Lawrence, 
and drive the free-State men out of the Territory 
— then it was that the people of Lawrence were 
compelled to expend fi20,000 to put themselves in 
a condition to protect their homes, their families, 
and their lives. Then it was that they appealed 
to Colonel Sumner for protection; but they made 
the appeal in vain. Colonel Sumner waited day 
after day with his horses saddled, ready to move 
to the protection of beleaguered Lawrence the 
moment he received his orders from the President; 
but orders to protect the people of Lawrence never 
came. Shannon, becoining alarmed at the storm 
he had raised, made a treaty with the people of 
Lawrence, and then sent to their homes in Mis- 
souri, Atchison and his retainers. While these 
armed bands were encircling Lawrence, Barber, 
a man respected and beloved, was cowardly mur- 
dered — murdered, it is believed, by Clark, your 
Indian agent — a man said to be the meanest offi- 
cial character in the Territory; but that is saying 
a great deal — for Shannon and Lecompte are 
there yet. Has the Administration removed this 
reputed murderer .' Has the Administration 
caused any investigation into these charges against 
one of your officials.' Have Senators who have 
the ear of power requested the President to 
remove this man, who is said to have boasted 
that he " sdw the fur fly" when the ball from 
his revolver hit poor Barber in the back, as he 
rode along the highway.' From this reputed 
murderer the President has received official dis- 
patches, which he has laid before the Senate as 
evidence againpt the free-State men. Dow and 
Barber sleep beneath the virgin sod of Kansas. 
Coleman and Clark, their reputed murderers, go 
unpunished; one guides border ruffianism in its 
forays; the other sends dispatches to your Presi- 
dent, retains the confidence of this Administra- 
tion, and his office — which he doubtless prizes 
quite as highly as he does the continued confi- 
dence of the Administration. 

The dastardly and cowardly assassins of the 
heroic Brown, though known, have never been 
brought to trial. This gallant son of the West — 
who had periled his life to rescue the clerk of the 
election at Leavenworth, on the 15th of December, 
for the adoption of the Topeka constitution, from 
the murderous assaults of men who stood over 
his prostrate form with uplifted axes — was bru- 
tally chopped to pieces at the election of members 
of the Legislature under the constitution, and then 



9 



carelessly tumbled into a cart and trundled to his 
home in the agonies of death, to breathe out 
his life in the arms of his distracted wife. His 
cowardly assassins are well known. They are 
the recognized file-leaders of armed bands. Your 
law-and-order Governor offers no reward for 
their arrest. Your judicial instruments are too 
busily engaged in arraigning free-State men for 
"high treason," and "constructive treason," 
to bring these cowardly murderers to justice. 

Your Indian agent, Gay, of Michigan, was 
recently murdered in cold blood by some of 
these chivalric sons of the South who followed 
tlie renowned Buford to the conquest of Kansas — 
to robbery, pillage, arson, and murder. His 
crime was not love of freedom — he was a friend 
of the Administration; his crime was the fatal 
admission that he came from free Michigan — tlmt 
being presumptive proof, in the eyes of these 
hounds, that he was in favor of making Kansas 
a free State. His murderers have not been 
brought to punishment. Your Governor, Shan- 
non, furnished arms and ammunition to these 
followers of Bufdrd; and these chivalric men 
doubtless thought they were putting your arms 
ajid your ammunition to good use, when they 
murdered your Indian agent for admitting that 
he came from the free State of Michigan. Where 
are your imbecile officials — your besotted Gov- 
ernor, your judges, your district attorney, and 
your marshal? Has your Administration sunk 
so low that it will not protect the lives or avenge 
Uie death of its own official menials? Senators 
have not denounced this murder of a Government 
official; itwas an unfortunate mistake, no doubt — 
a very unfortunate mistake. The assassins can 
plead, if they are ever brought to trial, in mitiga- 
tion, that it was all a mistake — that they only 
intended to kill a " free-State man" — " an Aboli- 
tionist!" Their laudable intentions will doubt- 
less be a valid plea in bar before your judicial 
functionaries in that Territory. 

SheriffJones, renowned for his brutal manners 
and unflagging zeal for the support of law and 
order, went to Lawrence to arrest S. N. Wood, 
on the very day when the committee of the House 
commenced their sittings in that town. The 
Senator from Georgia tells ys that he was shot, 
and that he may die. There are men who do 
not believe that he ever was shot, or that he 
will die from any such shots. At any rate, there 
has been something very extraordinary in this 
case, which can never be explained to the coun- 
try. But, even if he had been shot by some one 
whom he had wronged, are we to hold the whole 
community responsible? Did not the people of 
Lawrence assemble and denounce the act? Did 
not Governor Robinson offer a reward of five 
hundred dollars for the arrest of the person ? 
Was not every effort made to find out the per- 
son who did the deed, and did not the free-State 
men, in and out of the Territory, condemn the 
ac^? 

The ball I hold in my hand wa.s shot through 
a boy eighteen years old, the son of a widow. 
On his way home from Westport, Missouri, he 
■was stopped by those gentry who keep guard 
over the passes into the Territory, and required 
to give up what he had. He gave up his arms. 
They then required him to give up his horse, but 
he told them he would not do it. For that he 



was shot down; and this ball was taken out of 
his lifeless body by a friend of mine. 

The other day the papers brought us the intel- 
ligence that a peaceable citizen of Kansas, a 
native of Missouri, was captured by the creatures 
that prowl in bands over the Territory, and taken 
into a ravine and brutally murdered, shot svith 
three balls, for the crime of being a free-State 
man — his slave-State birth increasing the enormity 
of his crime and quickening the vengeance of hia 
assassins. All these offenses against property, 
all these crimes against liberty and life, have 
passed, up to this hour, unnoticed by your offi- 
cials, unpunished by your judicial tribunals. This 
imbecility is contemptible — this neglect is crim- 
inal. Truly, your Administration is in " that, 
pitiable condition " — to use the words of Lord 
Chatham —" wherein it is necessary to be con- 
temptible!" 

It has been stated, during this debate, that the 
men who went to Kansas from Georgia and South 
Carolina, did not go armed. No, sir, they did 
not; but when they got into the Territory, Gov- 
ernor Shannon armed them. They were called 
out as part of the military force, and put under 
pay, to support them while they were there. This 
is the fact — the dishonorable fact; there is no 
denying it. Senators do not deny these things 
now, quite so readily as they did last February, 
when they pitched into me, in open session and 
in secret session, for what I said here concerning 
affairs in Kansas; every word of which was trua 
in letter and in spirit. 

The Senator from Georgia, Mr. President, has 
paid a glowing tribute to the noble attributes and 
chivalric character of many of these border ruffian 
gentlemen of western Missouri. I am quite as 
ready, I trust, as the Senator from Georgia can 
be, to acknowledge moral or intellectual worth, or 
to do justice even to mere physical courage; but 
I have failed to see anything to admire in the 
conduct or bearing of men who, armed to the 
teeth, stole into Kansas, and, with the bowie- 
knife and revolver, forced their illegal ballots into 
the electoral urns. I have failed, sir, to see any- 
thing noble, manly, chivalric, in the actions of 
men who skulk over the border of Missouri, fire 
the lowly cabins of poor settlers, steal their horsea 
and cattle, and commit personal violence upon 
defenseless people, whose only offense is a love 
of equal and impartial liberty. Ay, sir, I have 
failed altogether even to see anything worthy of 
commendation in these gentry whose border and 
river exploits in arresting, disarming, and turning 
back peaceful emigrants, are borne to us upon 
every breeze that comes from Ijeyond the Missis- 
sippi. I see in the conduct of these men nothing 
to commend— much to condemn. Many of them 
may be deluded, but their lawless chiefs deserve 
to die felon deaths, and to leave felon names. 
The Senator from Georgia threw out the taunt 
that we of the minority would not dare— not 
dare— denounce thesje chivalric heroes before their 
faces. I tell the honorable Senator from Georgia 
that his taunt falls harmless at my feet. I dar« 
denounce the conduct of these towering heroea 
of border forays, uninfluenced by their presence 
or their absence; I dare denounce their lawless 
violence here, anywhere, at any time, in public 
or in private; and what I say will not be qualified, 
modified, or withdrawn, to please them or their 



10 



friends here. I am accustomed to utter my public 
opinions concerning measures and men with entire 
freedom, and I have never accustomed myself to 
retract what I have said, to accommodate any man 
or set of men. Border ruffianism and its sup- 
porters, in or out of the Capitol, will find that 
Bome of us dare utter our opinions with freedom, 
and maintain them with firmness. 

In February, Mr. President, General Atchison 
— the guilty author of the acts of lawlessness, 
Tiolence, and fraud that have marked the history 
of Kansas — was defended here by the Senators 
from Missouri, [Mr. Geyer,] South Carolina, 
[Mr. Butler,] and Tennessee, [Mr. Jones.] He 
was lauded as the prince of good fellows— the 
Boul of honor and chivalry. Shannon then found 
■willing defenders here. But times thange — the 
people have been heard — and these champions 
of border ruffianism are now defended, if at all, 
with less alacrity and in more qualified phrases. 
To the Senator from Georgia, who has borne his 
willing tribute of commendation to the characters 
of the followers of Atchison and Shannon, I 
commend the consideration of the words of Dr. 
J. y. C. Smith, late Mayor of Boston. Dr. 
Smith is no Abolitionist. The indignant thou- 
sands who saw, during his administration, the 
court-house in chains, and Anthony Burns es- 
corted through the streets of Boston by two thou- 
sand soldiers, and surrounded by three hundred 
armed special guards, will bear witness to the 
fact that he is no "Abolitionist," no "Black 
Republican." 

Dr. Smith gives the following not very flatter- 
ing description of these chivalric heroes of west- 
ern Missouri: 

" Since the United States troops have begun to show 
themselves at different points, the bandits scud before them 
tnto Missouri, liut make frequent incursions to rob, steal, 
and murder. Those I saw at Westport, whose camp was 
in the woods only a few rods out of the Territory, were 
young men, rough, coarse, sneering, swaggering, dare-devil - 
looking rascals as ever swung upon a gallows. They had 
not a redeeming trait of character. On the contrary, they 
were a horribly profane, whisky-drinking collection of 
ruthless desperadoes, whose depredations upon the peace- 
able, industrious occupants of the little log huts, which 
•tand like admiration points in every direction over the far- 
distant waving prairies, demand the earnest and imuiediate 
interposition of the government. 

" The marauders were mounted on horses and mules, 
armed to the teeth with pistols, long knives, and carbines. 
They rob travelers, surprise the humble residents of prairie 
cabins, whom they strip of theirvaluables, and, in repeated 
instances, murder the owner. They drive off cattle, the 
property most in request, and steal horses. They oblige a 
man lo dismount, and take his horse, and should he remon- 
Btratc or resist, blow his brains out without apology. 

" Occasionally the villains make a mistake and kill one 
of their own number. Vehicles are stopped, pocket books 
overhauled, and they order persons to quit the Territory 
with as much nonchalance as though they were the pro- 
prietors of the soil, and the reign of despotism had fairly 
commenced. These mounted robbers assume all the re- 
morseless characteristics of Italian brigands." 

These men, thus characterized, and their leader, 
Atchison, are held up on the floor of the Ameri- 
can Senate as men of noble natures — men of 
manly qualities — men of honor and chivalry. 
Chivalry ! chivalry ! I have lately heard that 
word so often associated with mean men and vile 
deeds, that it seems to be but another name for 
baseness, meanness, and cowardice. 

The Senator from Georgia refers, in no com- 
plimentary tone, to the committee sent by the 
House of Representatives to Kansas. He says we 



all knew what it went for, and what it has brough* 
back. Sir,it went out to ascertain the facts, and 
it has brought back a damning record that neither 
the Senator from Georgia nor any other Senator 
will ever blot out. That record goes to the coun- 
try ; and the people are intelligent enough to make 
up their judgment on the facts. We are assured 
by the Senator that there is to be another report. 
There may be another report manufactured, but 
the facts will not be changed. You may reason 
upon them, report upon them, argue upon them; 
but the facts can never be disputed. The fact 
stands out that four thousand nine hundred men 
from Missouri voted in that Tei'ritory in March, 
1855, and only one thousand one hundred or one 
thousand two hundred of the people who resided 
there. This great fact stands proved — admitted — 
confessed. Upon this point the whole controversy 
hinges. The Senator from Mississippi [Mr. 
Brown] declared to us the other day that, if the 
Kansas Legislature was elected by Missourians, 
we ought to abrogate all its laws. That was the 
only honest course for Congress to take. So 
thought the Senator from Mississippi — so I 
thought. I made the motion to abrogate those 
laws, but it was not responded to, although the 
fact stands proved that every member of the 
Legislature but one was elected by Missouri 
votes. 

The Senator from Georgia complains of what 
the Senator from New Hampshire has said in 
reference to removing landmarks. The Senator 
from Georgia and I want no compromises about 
slavery. He is for protecting slavery in the Ter- 
ritories; I am for blotting it out everywhere un- 
der the jurisdiction of the Federal Government in 
the Territories. But the cumpromise of 1820, it 
is admitted, was forced upon the free States in 
the struggle to prevent slavery from going beyond 
the Mississippi river, by making Missouri a free 
State. Yes, sir, the compromise was forced upon 
the conquered North by the victorious South. The 
northern men who then surrendered were broken 
down by the betrayed and indignant people of the 
North. But there came a.time when the Missouri 
compromise was an advantage to freedom, and 
when that time came, you gentlemen of the South 
took it from us. The laboring men of the coun- 
try had looked to the Territory as their heritage. 
The time arrived to occupy it. The slave pow- 
er that moves one portion of this country, and the 
freedom power which moves the other, had a 
struggle over that Territory in these Halls. Sla- 
very, as it always has done, triumphed — trium- 
phed by the aid of its northern men. But the 
Senator from New Hampshire was right in hold- 
ing you gentlemen of the South responsible for 
removing the "landmarks" of freedom. The 
glittering prize was offered by the Senator from 
Illinois, but the Senator from Georgia and his 
associates clutched it with greedy haste. They 
cling to the coveted prize now with deathless 
tenacity. 

The Senator from Georgia traces the everrts 
that have transpired in Kansas admirably, but 
he comes finally to the illogical conclusion, that 
the efforts made by the emigrant aid society, 
by the people of New England, and of the North, 
and by the people of the Territory, to establish 
freedom there, are the causes of all the troubles 
that afflict the Territory. That Senator, with all 



Mr. TOOMBS. Let me ask the Senator 
whether Brown, the editor of the Lawrence 
paper, is not one of them? 

Mr. WILSON. No, sir, he is not; he is a 
Pennsylvanian, I believe; but whether he be from 
Pennsylvania or the West, he has committed no 
offense. One of the eastern men has been shot 
down — I refer to the murdered Dow; but it so 
happens that most of the murders which have 
been committed have fallen on men who went 
there from the Northwest, by their own volition, 
without aid, pioneer-men — bolder men, perhaps, 
than our New Englanders, who are Uie last men 
in the world to get into a controversy, but not 
always the last to get out of it. 

Mr. President, against the unsustained asser- 
tions of the Senator from Illinois, and his asso- 
ciates, in regard to the emigrant aid society, I 
put the memorial of the executive committee of 
tliat company, presented to the Senate by me on 
the 25th of June. Sir, I have the honor to know 
the gentlemen who signed this memorial, and I 
know them to be gentlemen of intelligence and of 
character — men v/hose statements would not be 
questioned by any one in the community where 
they reside. The first signer of the memorial, 
Mr. Williams, is a native of Virginia, now a 
large sliipping merchant of the city of Boston. 
I call the attention of the Senate to the statements 
embodied in this memorial— statements that 
should silence forever the audacious assertions 
made here in regard to that company: 

To the honorable Senate and Hotise of Representatives of the 
United States in Congress asscmhled : 

The undersi«7icd, Executive Committee of the New England 
Emigrant ^id Company, respectfully represent, That a re- 
port made Marcli 12, 1856, to the Senate by ifie Coiiimiltee 
on Ti'rrilories, in wiiicli this company was referred to, and 
receni occurrences in tlie Territory of Kansas affecting tliis 
eompany, reiiuire us to appear bel'ore you, and to ask im- 
mediate attentioii to tlie facts stated, and the requests herein 
made. 

Lest the report above mentioned should have led to erro- 
neous views in regard to this company, we ask leave, first, to 
set forth some of the many errors and misrepresentations of 
that report, and to explain the true objects and real action 
of the company. " 

Tlie charter of the company does not allow a capital of 
five millions, but only of one million of dollars ; and the 
capital aciually paid iu has never exceeded one hundred 
thousand dollars. 

Tin; act of incorporation does not make the State of Mas- 
sachusetts in any way a party to the proceedings of the 
company. 

The eompany is not the origin of the troubles in Kansas 
by its " unauthorized and improper schemes of foreign inter- 
ference with the internal concerns of the Territory," " in 
violation of the principles and in evasion of the provisions 
of the Kansas-Nebraska act," having never acted contrary 
to any law of Congress, or infringed in any way upon the 
letter or spirit of the Jaws or regulations of any State or 
Territory, or the right of any citizen. 

The company has never invested a dollar in any of the 
Implements of war. 

It has never sent out persons to control the elections in 
Kansas, nor hired any man (except its business agents) to 
go there, nor paid the passage of a single emigrant — nor is 
It within the knowledge of the officers of the company that 
any person has gone out under its auspices with any other 
view than to settle and stay there. 

The eompany lias never taken or demanded any pledge 
or obligation of any kind from any person nor is it proba- 
ble that any pledge would have been given if dtimanded. 

Although we are in frequent and direct communication 
with the citizens of Missouri, as well as those of Kansas, 
we have never known of any violence or hostility offered by 
emigrants from tlieNorth or Easttoany citizen of Missouri. 
or to any other citizen. The emigrant parties are, and have 
always been, open to all, whether coming from the North 
or the South. 



The purposes and action of the company have never been 
concealed — are obvious, simple, and need not be misunder- 
stood. The purposes are to facilitate the settlement of the 
I Territories of the United Stales by a population of free and 
intelligent citizens, and at the same time to make advan- 
tageous investments of capital there. These two purposes 
i have been fully explained and made public in the various 
publications of the company. 

The means by which it acts are not " unusual," or " ex- 
traordinary," or for the purpose of "stimulating a forced 
and unnatural system of emigration." 

They consist merely in placing capital, in the form of saw 
and grist mills, hotels, Stc, in favorable localities, when 
population follows, as it has done, and as it is well known to 
have done, throughout the West. 

To do this is our whole plan. It appears tons to afford no 
room for just reproach, and its legality is beyond a doubt. 
That it has been beneficial to Kansas, and to all concerned, 
is proved by the satisfaction of the settlers, butheir frequent 
application to us for further investments, by the flattering 
prospects of our enterprises, and the prosperity of the Ter- 
ritory until the late occurrences. 

We claim, therefore, as citizens of the United States, and 
as a corporate body, acting in no wise contrary to the laws, 
and infringing in no way upon the rights of any other citizen, 
the same right to pursue our business free from molestation 
and interierence, in the Territory of Kansas, that we have 
to pursue it in any other part of our common country. 

Instead of being allowed to do so, however, it has hap- 
pened that our proper enterprises have been vexatiously 
and illegally interfered with. 

That a large and valuable building, known as the Eld- 
ridge House, or Free-State Hotel, belonging to the com- 
pany, in-^he town of Lawrence, Kansas Territory, has been 
illegally destroyed by cannon and fire, and, to the best of the 
knowledge and belief of your petitioners, this destruction 
has been caused by, or with the consent of, or through the 
culpable negligence of officers of the General Government. 

That other property belonging to the c(|mpany has also 
been destroyed through the same causes ; and yourpetition- 
ers have reason to tear that still further depredations will be 
committed by the same lawless persons.. 

That great losses and distress have been inflicted not only 
upon this company, but on many unoffending citizens of the 
Territory. 

That your petitioners can satisfactorily prove all the above 
statements. 

They therefore pray your honorable body to take steps to 
cause this illegal destruction ininiediately to cease, the 
offenders to be brought to justice, and compensation to be 
made for tlie losses and injuries sustained. 

JOHN M. S. WILLIAMS, 
S. CABOT, Jr., 
L. B. KUSS^ELL, 
' C. J. HIGGINSOIV, 

W. B. SPOONEIl. 

Mr. President, the Senator from Illinois tells us 
that he shall speak plain in regard to our position 
upon the Kansas question. He has spoken with 
plainness — more plainness than justice or truth. 
He has the audacity to charge upon the minority 
in the Senate — upon men who, in their speeches, 
in their letters to their friends in the Territory, 
have counseled unyielding devotion to freedom, 
to p«ace, to order, to the authority of the Federal 
Government— I say he has the audacity to charge 
upon Senators here— upon the Senators from 
New York, New Hampshire, Ohio, Illinois, Ver- 
mont, Maine — upon my absent colleague — upon 
all of us of the minority, the scenes of lawlessness 
and violence that have marked the history of ill- 
starred Kansas during tlie past year. Sir, the Sen- 
ator from Illinois goes further in his recklessness 
of assertion: he declares that we do not want to 
close these scenes in the Territory until after the 
presidential election; and this as.scrtion,so unjust, 
was indorsed by the applause of these pro-slavery 
galleries. I, too, will speak with plainness; and 
I will hold the Senator from Illinois, and his com- 
peers, to their just responsibility for all their acta 
of omission aiid commission concerning the Ter- 
ritory of Kansas. Before the Senate, and the 



6 



country — ay, sir, before the bar of the civilized 
world — I hold the Senator from Illinois to a just 
responsibility for the blood which has been shed 
or which may be shed in that Territory from 
which his "ruthless hand" erased the sacred 
words: " Slavery shall be, and is forever, prohib- 
ited." Upon the Senator from Illinois, more than 
upon any other man in all America, presses the 
crushing weight of wrongs and outrages to prop- 
erty, liberty, and life which have followed the 
repeal of the prohibition of 1820. Sir, the acts 
of lawless violence, the arsons, robberies, and 
murders that have marked the past of Kansas, 
are all the fruits of that deed which the fertile 
brain of thg Senator from Illinois conceived and 
his cunning hand executed. When the year 1854 
opened upon that vast Territory in the heart of 
liieR-epublic," Freedom for all: chains fornone," 
were engraved upon its surface in letters of living 
light. Slavery was forbidden to enter that mag- 
nificent region of forest and prairie, lake and river. 
Its ^hilling shadow fell not upon the flowers that 
bloomed and the waters that flowed. The sun- 
light of freedom bathed its virgin soil. Free 
labor — educated labor — secure in the plighted 
faith of the third of a century — looked upon that 
vast domain, lying in the central regions of the 
North American continent, as its rightful, its 
legitin.ate inheritance. Even the Senator from 
Illinois had announced from his high place here, 
in the councils of the nation, that " no ruthless 
hand" would dare break that compromise that 
gave freedom forever to a Territory larger than 
the thirteen colonies that opened the war of inde- 
pendence. The people of the country, and, above 
all, the free laboring men of the country, had 
their rich heritage of freedom put in peril by the 
Senator from llinois. The people of the country, 
and, above all, the free laboring men of the coun- 
try, now hold, and they will continue to hold, the 
Senator from Illinois responsible for that act whose 
fruits have been robbery, arson, murder, and 
oppression. Sir, I tell the Senator from Illinois 
that the scenes of lawlessness, of violence, of 
bloodshed, and of oppression, that the world has 
witnessed in Kansas are chargeable — not upon the 
emigrantaid companies — not upon the free people 
of Kansas — not upon Senators here who have 
protested against your acts — but upon the Sen- 
ator and his compeers, by whose counsels and 
votes the landmarks against slavery were re- 
moved, and upon the border ruffians of Missouri, 
who demanded the consummation of that unhal- 
lowed deed. The Senator from Illinois, th& Ad- 
ministration, the Democratic party, will be held 
responsible through all coming time for the bitter 
fruits of that deed, by which the landmarks of 
freedom were removed, and slavery permitted to 
enter this heritage of freedom, and contend for 
empire. 

The Senator from Illinois and his associates, 
Mr. President, to silence the stern protests of the 
freemen of the Republic, gave assurance that the 
question of freedom or slavery was to be left to 
the free action of the actual settlers. Has the 
Senator from Illinois — has the Administration 
redeemed this pledge? Have they given protec- 
tion to the actual settlers of the Territory ? Have 
not the men who violated the plighted faith of the 
nation by abrogating the prohibition of 1820, vi- 
olated tiieir own plighted word to the actual cit- 



izens of Kansas? Yes, sir, the Administration 
has not only broken the word of promise to the 
hope, but it has not kept the word of promise to 
the ear. Sir, you have not given protection to 
the people of Kansas. You have not protected 
them in their property, in their liberties, or in 
their lives. You do not mean to aff'ord them pro- 
tection — you dare not afford them protection. 
The slave power, your imperious master, will not 
permit you to aiford protection to the people of 
Kansas. The Senator from Illinois, the Admin- 
istration, the Democracy, quail before that power; 
and to the imploring appeals of the subdued and 
suffering people you sternly answer, " Obey the 
laws!" "The laws shall be executed!" " We 
will subdue you!" The people point to the or- 
ganic act as the charter of their rights, your 
pledge to them, and you scream in their ears, 
" Treason!" " Traitors!" " Submission, uncon- 
ditional submission, or you shall die the death of 
traitors!" Your satrap Shannon, a poor, weak, 
vacillating creature, arms ruffians, and harasses 
the people he should protect. Your Lecompte, 
in mockery of justice, arraigns men for "high 
treason" — for " constructive treason." Your 
Donaldsons and your Joneses fire dwellings, 
destroy presses, and rob people fleeing from their 
burning homes. 

The people were to be left perfectly free to 
settle their own domestic affairs; you gave this 
pledge — the slave power gave this pledge. How 
have these pledges been kept? On the 29th of 
November, 1854, si.N: brief months after thesa 
pledges were given, the people of Kansas assem- 
bled to elect a Delegate to represent them in the 
national House of Representatives. On that day 
the slave power, unmindful of its plighted faith, 
in hollow mockery of popular rights, stole over 
into that Territory, and stuff'ed the ballot-boxes 
with hundreds of illegal votes for the pro-slavery 
candidate. All the redress you gave to the out- 
raged people of Kansas was a flippant denial of 
the deed of infamy. 

On the 30th of March, ten months after your 
pledge of perfect freedom to settle their own do- 
mestic affairs was given, the people of Kansas 
again went to the ballot-boxes to choose a Legis- 
lature to frame lav/s for their own government. To 
their amazement they found the ballot-boxes in 
the hands of four thousand nine hundred armed 
men from Missouri. Overawed by superior num- 
bers — intimidated by menacingthreats — robbed of 
their legal right by lawless violence — hundreds of 
the actual settlers of the Territory retired , wi thout 
voting, to their homes — a subdued and conquered 
people. Others, who chose to peril life in the 
exercise of their legal rights, were overborne by 
overwhelming numbers, and they, too, retired to 
their liomes a subdued and conquered people. 
Back to Missouri staggered the marauding hordes 
of border rufiians, drunk with victory and bad 
whisky. Kansas was conquered by this lawless 
foray from Missouri; the slave power gloated 
over its dishonorable victory. Governor Reedei 
announced to the people of his native Pennsyl- 
vania that Kansas had been conquered — subdued 
by armed iiieii from Missouri. Your Adminis- 
tration was indignant at this honest admission: 
silence was enjoined upon the faithful. The pro- 
testing voices of the people of Kansas were 
silenced by the clamor of the partisans and presses 



11 



bia ability, has given us no evidence whatever 
to stow that New England men have in any way 
outraged the people of that Territory. They are 
not in arms; they have never taken up arms but 
to defend their homes. They have driven no 
men out of the Territory. Hundreds of them 
have been driven out — others have been silenced — 
they dare not utter their sentiments. Since the bill 
of the Senator from Georgia was introduced, Mr. 
President, I have seen several of the leading men 
of the Territory, and I have not yet seen one who 
did not believe that its adoption at this particular 
time, under the present circumstances, will crown 
the usurpations in Kansas, and make it a slave- 
holding State. That is their conviction. It is my 
conviction. 

Mr. WELLER. Has anybody said so except 
Republicans — members of your own party.' 

Mr. WILSON. Yes, sfr, I have been told so 
by men who have always acted with the Demo- 
cratic party — men who have not at least yet de- 
clared what they intend to do in the coming con- 
test. 

These men, sir, may err in their opinions — I 
may err in mine, hut they believe, and I believe, 
that your bill of pacification is to be a bill of 
death to freedom in Kansas. I have watched 
events in Kansas with the deepest solicitude, not 
for their political significance — for I care little for 
party organizations — I follow where the star of 
liberty shines upon my path, and I would sacri- 
fice any party if, by so doing, I could advance the 
cause of universal and impartial liberty in Amer- 
ica. I have watched, I say, the course of events 
in Kansas, and I declare my profound conviction 
that the triumph of your measure is the triumph 
of the policy of slavery extension. Who can 
doubt it ? Who can doubt it ? The true and 
tried friends of free Kansas do not — they can'hot 
doubt it. You have scattered, arrested, and im- 
prisoned the free-State leaders. Your tools have 
driven out or silenced hundreds of free-State 
men. Your Lecompte has suppressed, as nui- 
sances, the free-State papers, or they have been 
destroyed by mobs in the interest of the slave- 
State men. One free-State paper — the Tribune, at 
Topeka — survives unsuppressed;butthe Squatter 
Sovereign , one of your six border ruffian journals, 
that flourished by the patronage of the Adminis- 
tration — a journal which, to the shame of the Ad- 
ministration, is supported by the advertising of 
the Federal Government — a journal that has the 
name of James Buchanan at its head, demands, in 
tliis defiant and monstrous spirit, the suppression 
of this last journal of the free-State men, and the 
butchery of the peojDle of Topeka and Lawrence: 

'• Several parties have inquired of us, [says the Squatter 
Sovereign,] why the law has not been put in force at To- 
peka, as well as at Lawrence, against abolition newspapers .' 
Topeka is no better than Lawrence; it is also demoralized ; 
but it is not so well known abroad. If both Topeka and 
Lawrence were blotted out, entirely obliterated, it would 
be the best thing for Kansas that could happen. The sooner 
tlie people of Topeka sounJ their dcalh-knell the better; they 
are too corrupt and degraitcd tflive. We would like to be 
present and raise our Ebenezer in the funeral. It is silly 
to suppose for an instant that there can be peace in Kansaij 
as long as one cneviy of the South lives upon her soil, or one 
single specimen of an Molitionist treads in the sunliglU of 
Kasisas Territory." 

I hold the Administration, I hold the Demo- 
cratic party, responsible for this assassin-like 
language of the Squatter Sovereign — a journal 



that feeds upon your bounty — lives-by your pat- 
ronage. The supporters of the Administration, 
the supporters of James Buchanan , dare not with- 
hold the advertising patronage of the GovernmenJ 
from this infamous journal — this organ of border 
ruffianism — this mouth-piece of Atchison, String- 
fellow, Shannon, and Lecompte. 

The Senator from Georgia, as well as the Ser>- 
ator from Illinois, has indulged in denunciatory 
remarks about the "Black Republican party." 
He wants something descriptive, and he tells us 
that " black" describes our republicanism. If 
the Senator chooses to call me a " Black Repub- 
lican," I have no objection. If he chooses to call 
me an " Abolitionist," I do notobject to it. Call 
me anything you please, sir, but false to freedom, 
and I am content. But the Senator has hurled a 
threat at us. He says we may elect fifty Fre- 
monts, and if the people of Kansas make up their 
minds to have slavery, we cannot take it from 
their iron grasp. Sir, I do not know how the 
the fact is, but it is said that the Senator from 
Georgia, and others, talked very plain to General 
Taylor, in 1850, about a dissolution of the Union, 
and that General Taylor intimated to them pretty 
distinctly, that the Union was to be preserved, 
and the laws of the country executed. If John 
C. Fremont be elected President, he has enough 
of Old Hickory in him, enough of Zachary Tay- 
lor in him, to execute the national will, to meet 
threats, whether they come from the North or the 
South. I tell the Senator from Georgia, that 
threats to resist the action of Congress, threats to 
dissolve the Union, will alarm none of us. 

Mr. TOOMBS. I have said nothing about a 
dissolution of the Union. I said that nothing 
could wrench this Territory from the iron grasp 
of these men except a fair vote at the ballot- 
box. 

Mr. WILSON. I apprehend, however, that 
if we can get a majority in the Senate, and I hope 
we shall do it soon — I think we shall come pretty 

close to it before the 4th of March, 1859 

Mr. WELLER. I doubt it. 
Mr. WILSON. I hope we shall even get a 
good free-State Senator who is all right, in the 
place of the Senator from California. 

Mr. WELLER. Thank God, you will get a 
man of the same stripe that I am. 

Mr. WILSON. Perhaps the Senator from 
California may be mistaken concerning the sen- 
timents of his successor. If we elect John C. 
Fremont; if we secure a majority here during his 
Administration, and also a majority in the other 
House, and prohibit slavery in the Territories, 
in Kansas, 1 apprehend the people of that Terri- 
tory will acquiesce in the action of the Federal 
Government. 
Mr. BENJAMIN. It is a mistake. 
Mr. WILSON. The Senator from Louisiana 
says it is a mistake. A mistake ! Are we to 
understand, then, that if we prohibit slavery in 
the Territories, the people of the territories will 
not submit to the legislation of Congress — to tha 
laws of the country? 

Mr. BENJAMIN. If the Senator desires to 
understand what I mean I will tell him plainly. 
I hold, and the South holds, that the Congress of 
the United States has no power to take the common 
territory of the Union and give it to the North 
exclusively; and if it attempts to usurp such a 



12 



power the Union cannot stand. That is what I 
mean. 

Mr. WILSON. I M\y comprehend the idea 
of the Senator from Louisiana. He holds the 
doctrine, and he tells us the South holds the 
doctrine, that Congress has no power to exclude 
the South from the common territory — that is, 
Congress has no power to exclude slavciy from 
the Territories by positive law. The Senator 
from Illinois — the leader of the Democratic party, 
under whose banner the Senator from Louisiana 
has enlisted — declared, on this floor, the 13th of 
March, 1850, that " no geogra[)hical section of 
tlie Union is entitled to any share of the Territo- 
ries;" that " the Territories belong to the United 
States as one people, one nation, and arc to be 
disposed of for the common benefit of all;" that 
" each State, as a member of the Confederacy, 
has a right to a voice in forming the rules and 
regulations for the government of the Territories; 
but the different sections — North, South, East, 
and West — have no such right;" that " it is no 
violation of southern rights to prohibit slavery;" 
tliat " neither the North nor the South, as such, 
have any rights there at all." Sir, I concur fully 
in these declarations of the Senator from Illinois — 
the " Black Republicans" concur fully in these 
declarations. We believe, with the Republican 
fathers North and South, that Congress has 
power to exclude slavery from the Territories — 
that it ought to exercise that power; and we have 
resolved to exercise that power not only in the 
Territory covered by the prohibition of 1820, but 
in all the Territories now acquired or to be ac- 
quired by the Federal Government. Southern 
statesmen have held that Congress has power to 
prohibit slavery in the Territories. The Supreme 
Court has affirmed the power of Congress over 
the Territories. The great names in our history 
have not only held that Congress had the power 
to exclude slavery from the Territories, but they 
have generally favored the exercise of that power. 

Mr. TOOMBS. Not one. 

Mr. WILSON. The Senator from Georgia 
Burely will not deny the fact that the statesmen 
of the North — the great constitutional lawyers 
and jurists of the North — have held that Congress 
has the power to prohibit slavery in the Territo- 
ries; and he must admit that many of the great 
names from the South gave their sanction to the 
ordinance of 1787, which excluded slavery for- 
ever from the northwest Territory — to the Mis- 
souri prohibition of 1820, which prohibited 



slavery in the Louisiana purchase north and 
west of Missouri — to the prohibition of slavery 
in a portion of Texas, should that portion ask 
admission into the Union, and to the prohibition 
of slavery in the Territory of Oregon. Many of 
the eminent statesmen of the South have left on 
record by pen, voice, or vote, their approval of 
some or all of these acts for tlie prohibition of 
slavery by legislative action. It will be found, I 
think, that the Supreme Court has laid down 
principles of constitutional construction and inter- 
pretation that affirm this power over the Terri- 
tori6s 

Mr. BENJAMIN. That is a difference of 
opinion. 

Mr. WILSON. The Senator from Louisiana 
says that is a difference of opinion; but the coun- 
try has believed in that doctrine; Congress has 
believed in. that doctrine, and has exercised tli« 
power. It was exercised in 1787, and was in- 
dorsed immediately after the adoption of the Con- 
stitution by the First Congress. It was exercised 
in 1820. It was exercised a few years ago in the 
Oregon bill. Senators from the South repeatedly 
gave their almost united votes in favor of extend- 
ing the prohibition of slavery north of 36° 30' to 
the Pacific ocean. If you have the right to pro- 
hibit slavery north of that line, you have the 
right to prohibit it south of that line — the right 
to prohibit it in all the Territories of the United 
States. The Senators from Georgia and Lou- 
isiana do not believe Congress has this power. 
We believe-»-the people of the free States by im- 
mense majorities believe — we have the power. If 
a majority of the people shall decree it — if a ma- 
jority in both Houses of Congress shall affirm it, 
and the Executive sanctions their acts, I have no 
doubt the good sense and patriotism of the people 
of the whole country. North and South, will rally 
with alacrity to the support of the Federal Gov- 
ernment — to the maintenance of the unity and 
indivisibility of the Republic. Defeated faction 
may plot treasonable insurrection; baffled con- 
sjjirators may mutter threats of disunion and 
civil war; the public mind may be momentarily 
agitated, and the public councils temporarily 
embarassed, by the expiring efforts of waning^ 
power; but the people of the country — the intel- 
ligent, patriotic, liberty-loving, law-abiding peo- 
ple of the country, who accept the Declaration of 
Independence and the Constitution of the United 
States as their political charts, will bear the Gov- 
ernment in safety through the impending dangers . 



570 - 



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